The set consisted of a quasi-chronological display of musical raw power, ranging from material by Lydia’s classic units Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, 13.13, 8-Eyed Spy and Shotgun Wedding as well as touching on her solo debut “Queen of Siam” (ZE Records, 1980) and various other projects up to the present. The reception to these hour-long sets of bloodyminded sonic bullying was uniformly rapturous. To quote V. Vale, of RE-Search infamy: “That was the most intense show I’ve seen you do, Lydia.” Intense it was, and the smoldering intensity of that tour is trapped on this ripping new release. As one will hear on this album, RETROVIRUS is a well-oiled monolith of a unit: Scathing guitar shrapnel strafing ominously massive bass slabs, hurled forward by pulverizing drum thunder and topped by Lydia’s signature perma-scowl vocals. This is no county fair cover-band – RETROVIRUS is a totally modern take on the atrocities of the past and present, devoid of simpering nostalgia, bristling with a scoriatingly modern sheen of violence and momentum.